I Had Totally Forgotten

The tesseract is the greatest thing ever.



See? :D

Gossip Is The Lowest Form Of Communication

*facepalm*

Either whoever wrote this poll is trying to trick everyone into answering a certain way, or the people who filled it out really don't have a clue.

Yes, it is important to raise awareness about domestic abuse. However, splashing pictures of a bleeding pop star on every gossip site on the web does not raise awareness about domestic abuse. It's a lurid violation of privacy. Domestic abuse is not something you gawk over, I don't care how famous Rihanna is. You want to raise awareness about domestic abuse, TMZ? It's a little thing I call 'charity fundraiser for a women's shelter'. Seriously.

To end, here's a quote from The Smoking Gun, on TMZ's history of printing photos of abuse victims:

The gossip outlet, which pays for stories and likely shelled out a fortune for the Rihanna image, last April published the name and photograph of a 14-year-old boy whom TMZ identified as the alleged victim of a sex crime. The child, the site reported, was the son of a celebrity, hence its interest in this particular minor's sexual abuse. ... [The story] was illustrated with a photo of the alleged victim that was taken when he was 10. So if TMZ editor Harvey Levin ... pops up on television to talk about his tortured decision to publish the photo of a domestic violence victim, know that he is full of shit.

This whole mess has confirmed what I already knew; TMZ is a pox upon humanity.

Progress And Such

Since the last word count bar I tried failed so badly, here's another:

26716 / 200,000 words. 13% done!

Much better. I have cracked 25,000 which is a great milestone. Here's an excerpt from my latest idea.

As soon as the sun sank beneath the horizon, I was back in action. Hidden underneath layers of straw was a small knife that I could barely grasp in my talons. If I could have used my beak to hold it, I would have. But my bastard owner had decided to bind my mouth shut as punishment for biting him earlier. And so I was left with no choice but to use my wretched claws instead. The knife was horribly dull, barely putting a dent into the bars of my cage. I pushed harder with the knife, metal noisily screeching against metal. Noise was the last thing I wanted; Qadir would bind my feet and clip my wings if he found me trying to escape like this. So I eased up on the pressure, slowly dragging the knife back and forth across the bar, praying to see some kind of chink in my prison. The light slowly faded, giving way to a dark night. Shadows were creeping across the vast treasure room when I realized that the knife was doing absolutely nothing. With a frustrated (but muffled) squawk, I tossed it through the bars of my cage, where it landed on top of a filigreed jewelery box.

I wished for a moment that Giedre was still here, to tell me that it was better to stay calm and unruffled, to tell me that I'd certainly be free one day, she was sure of it. But she was gone now and I was alone without a friend for the first time in five years. It was true that I knew I would one day be free of this place, that I was destined to lead a life of wonder and magnificence, but it was nice to hear it from someone else besides myself every now and then.

"Simmer down, Nisr. I'm trying to sleep."

Go to hell, old man. I fixed my steely gaze on Bilal, wishing I could screech at him through the darkness. Sensing my foul mood, he grumbled about my bad attitude, his grizzled form curling up on a carpet of indigo and gold that was his home. There were others in the vault, imprisoned treasures such as myself, but no one else spoke to me. I was too fiery, too stubborn, too willing to go too far and earn Qadir's wrath. If it was within their control, they didn't speak a word to me; Qadir was the strictest of men and they dared not get in his way.

Me, on the other hand? I wasn't afraid of Qadir. I'd seen worse than him. I had no qualms about testing his patience.

I have no idea where it's going but it's holding my attention for now. The best part? I have two main characters and when I write them I actually have two different voices. Awesome!

I Is Ded From Laff

AWESOME.

I Cracked 20,000!

This is nifty; nice little word count meter to show my progress with GYWO...

22229 / 200,000 words. 11% done!

As usual, I am behind. I need to put in some serious writing over the next two days before things get out of control. :|

New Song Of The Moment!

I've been watching clips from the Grammys on YouTube (all I saw on TV was M.I.A. and her boys doing Swagger Like Us) and was immediately drawn to this performance: Lil Wayne and Robin Thicke doing a song called Tie My Hands.



It's so soulful for a hip hop song, I really liked it. After downloading it and listening to it a couple of times I went hunting for the lyrics and realized that the words are a lot sadder than I originally thought. And I already knew it was a song about New Orleans. Robin Thicke's chorus is especially down:

I work at the corner store, we all got problems, problems
No one's gonna fly down low, no one's gonna save us now
How you feel, you're not alone, we're all just jealous, jealous
We don't reach the sky no more, we just can't overcome, no

You tie my hands, what am I gonna be?
What have I done so bad? What is my destiny?
You tie my hands, what I am I suppose to see?
What have I done so bad? What am I gonna be?

Wah. But still, I love this song. I'm listening to it on repeat, as per my usual modus operandi.

Laughing Is Good For You

I was reading Pandagon this morning and for some reason, something Amanda Marcotte said struck me as hilarious.

"At this point in time, I had the stunning realization that the octuplets mom, who is being lambasted from every corner of the planet, might be on the sane side of over-fertile. She has certainly exposed how the pro-patriarchal arguments about the glories of unemployed, fertile femininity and the embracing of human life were all 100% empty---in the end, it’s all about having a man, and that was the difference between hero and villain. But maybe Nadya Suleman saw “Jon & Kate” and realized that you can have a litter of small children or a happy, peaceful marriage, but you can’t have both. (I guess the Duggars achieved it by removing Michelle Duggar’s personality and will from the equation.)"

*snort* Funny. Because I watch too much TLC, whilst lamenting how low that station has gone over the past fifteen years or so.

Anyhow, here's my profound question for the day, courtesy of a joke on The Daily Show, I think: how come cheese tastes so good when you put it on Italian food but so wrong when you put it on Chinese food? Think about it. ;)

Back On Track

After being seriously behind (I didn't even make my quota for January) I have worked hard and am now ahead of my required total word count for GYWO: 18,787 / 200,000. Hooray!

Then again... so very tired. *collapses into bed*

I Love My Crazy, Mind-Bendy Show

The Top 10 Things That Haven't Been Answered In 'Lost' That I Really Want To Know

1. Where did the frozen wheel come from and who put it there?
2. Who built the four-toed statue?
3. What are Walt's powers and does he still have them?
4. Why was Libby in Hurley's mental asylum?
5. Why do pregnant women die on the island?
6. What exactly is the smoke monster?
7. Why did Charlotte find a polar bear in Tunisia?
8. Who is Jacob?
9. What the hell happened to Claire?
10. What are the whispers?

Question that didn't make the cut: at the very end, will Kate choose Jack or Sawyer? The logical choice is Sawyer, but with Lost you never know... she could pick no one or fall off a cliff or something. :P

Turn For The Worse

Good lord, I am a great deal behind on my writing quota for GYWO. I should have around 14,000 words by now but I'm only at 10,715. And not much of that has been dedicated to writing The Last Breath. *disgruntled face* I've been reduced to gathering my word count from my random blogging instead of fictional pieces, which is something that I wanted to hold off on.

In The News, On The Radio

Ex-Montreal pastor gets five years in prison for sex with 10-year-old 'wife' Um, NEWSFLASH you cannot "have sex" with a 10-year-old. (Age of consent, blah blah of course.) But I guess using the word 'rape' in the headline was just too much for some journalist to handle. *eyeroll*

Manitoba lesbian couple says doctor refused them because of sexual orientation I was an idiot and decided to read some of the comments to the article. Helloooooo racism. I should have know it the moment I saw the phrase 'foreign-trained'. *headdesk*

Goat detained over armed robbery BWAH?! THERE ARE NO WORDS. The sad thing? I don't see much difference between those who think a robber turned into a goat to evade prosecution, and those who think hurricanes are symbols of a sky spirit's displeasure. :P

Let's put that aside and listen to some tunes. Today, I bring to thee... NON-dance music! This is the song 'The Fear' by Lily Allen.



Great song. It's fun pop music, but she actually has a message omg.
I want to be rich and I want lots of money
I don’t care about clever I don’t care about funny
I want loads of clothes and fuckloads of diamonds
I heard people die while they are trying to find them

I’ll take my clothes off and it will be shameless
‘Cuz everyone knows that’s how you get famous
I’ll look at the sun and I’ll look in the mirror
I’m on the right track yeah I’m on to a winner

I don’t know what’s right and what’s real anymore
I don’t know how I’m meant to feel anymore
When do you think it will all become clear?
‘Cuz I’m being taken over by The Fear

Life’s about film stars and less about mothers
It’s all about fast cars cussing each other
But it doesn’t matter cause I’m packing plastic
and that’s what makes my life so fucking fantastic

And I am a weapon of massive consumption
and its not my fault it’s how I’m programmed to function
I’ll look at the sun and I’ll look in the mirror
I’m on the right track yeah we're on to a winner

I don’t know what’s right and what’s real anymore
I don’t know how I’m meant to feel anymore
When do you think it will all become clear?
‘Cuz I’m being taken over by The Fear

Forget about guns and forget ammunition
Cause I’m killing them all on my own little mission
Now I’m not a saint but I’m not a sinner
Now everything's cool as long as I’m getting thinner

I don’t know what’s right and what’s real anymore
I don’t know how I’m meant to feel anymore
When do you think it will all become clear?
‘Cause I’m being taken over by The Fear
There are so many subversive elements to this song that it's pretty amazing. She talks about the pressure to be vacuous, conflict diamonds, useless tabloids (The Sun and The Mirror in the UK), and materialism to name a few. I just keep listening to this song on repeat. :)

Let The New Tunes Roll

I have received news that the Music Store for Rock Band 2 on Wii is now open!

OH GLORIOUS DAY!!!

Detours Are Fun

Hmm. I joined GYWO so that I could finish my novel, but it seems like I am simply using my daily word count to write other little things. Anything but my novel. Still, I'm doing well so far: 6,124 / 200,000 words as of today.

Long-Term Plans

I joined this online group called Get Your Words Out, where I pledged to write 200K words for the year 2009. I definitely think this will turn out better than my previous NaNo failures because my quota turns out to be ~550 words per day. Quite doable. I'm currently trying to finish a few one-shot stories I was writing, but once I get those out of the way it's back to finishing up my novel. I'm currently at 665 words out of 200,000, hahaha.

Here's to a brand new year of goals and challenges.

Writing Progress

50,178 / 200,000 words. 25% done!

ONE QUARTER = AWESOME.

April is going to be tough for me; my buffer has been depleted, so no more blowing off three days in a row just because.

A Whole 'Nother Level Of Awesome

I can't believe that I have a thing for posting actual factual good dance music videos and never even thought of this gem until today.

Quite possibly the best music video ever (IMHO): Romeo by Basement Jaxxx. Why? Bollywood parody, duh.



And I never noticed, until this very moment, that the car chase scene shows stores with Telegu (I think?) letters. No wonder it looks so south Indian, hahahaha.

I Did It For The Lulz

Hey Stephen Harper
To the tune of Hey There Delilah


(By: Smitha)

Hey Stephen Harper,
You've been so un-parliamentary,
Passing these aggressive motions when the
Opposition's so pissed off with you.
What did you think that they would do?
You shoulda knew.

Hey Stephen Harper,
You have been a big ole bully.
Telling us to go and vote for you was
Just a waste of money
In my eyes.
Your government is full of lies,
It's no surprise.

Ohhhh look at those MPs. (x4)

Hey Stephen Harper,
Soon you're going to lose your power,
Cause the Liberals, Greens and New Democrats
Kinda need that dollar ninety five.
Their coalition's come alive,
It has arrived.

Hey Stephen Harper,
Won't you stop with all the slander?
You're badmouthing the Bloc Quebecois,
But you said you would band with them before.
Yeah, back in two thousand and four...
Denial galore.

Ohhhh look at those MPs. (x4)

You think the people want you there
And clamour that this is unfair,
But constitutionally it's all legit.
I know you probably like your job
But let me tell you, as I sob,
That economic downturns are a bitch.
Prime Minister I promise you
That we will all try to undo
The problems Canada has in your name.
Oh god the shame!

Hey Stephen Harper,
Michaelle Jean heading home
And when that smart and awesome lady
Finally gives you the heave-ho,
I'll do a dance.
I'll be so happy in my pants.
I'm very firm upon this stance.
Hey Harper you just lost your chance,
You lost your chance.

Ohhhh look at those MPs. (x4)

download the mp3

The Government Is Trying To Eat Itself!

Yeah, shit be going down in Canada, son.

A friend of mine linked me to an easy to read explanation of how Canadian government generally works and what exactly our current clusterfuck is all about. Yarn Harlot seems left-leaning to me, so I rather liked her take on it.

I can't wait to see what Michaelle Jean does. *crosses fingers*

I Still Have Hope

NaNo is over but that doesn't mean I've stopped writing. Thus far I have completed three full chapters and am on to the fourth.

Title: The Last Breath
Genre: Historical Fiction
Word Count: 18,041

Giving Gifts Is Fun!

*points at Flash fun at the top of her blog*

Go nuts! The crazier the gift, the better. ;D